Re: [linux-dvb] [PATCH] Userspace tuner

Alan Cox
2007-09-14T13:52:59Z

On Fri, Sep 14, 2007 at 01:17:05AM +0200, Markus Rechberger wrote:
> what stops vendors of using the current existing code to achieve that
> goal. They could provide binary drivers with the existing API.

If you feel lucky about the GPL

> What stops companies to intercept the ioctl calls and overriding some
> I2C commands?

The GPL - derivative work is the boundary not code linkage. Possibly a userspace
tuner hack would probably fit this too. Especially if a specific vendor is
producing both bits together and trying to claim they are independant.

> How about proprietary video formats, would you also place the decoding
> algorithms in kernel just to force companies to release their code
> for it?

No, I would assume they'd provide a proprietary conversion library that
no nobody would use (just like their hw). We keep format conversion firmly
seperated from hardware I/O processing.

Alan